The Guaranteed Entrance to Medical School (G.E.M.S.) Program was first established in 1988 and has since matured into a prestigious honor for the ten undergraduates who are selected into the program each year. Students in the program are given un-paralleled insight into the field of medicine, and guarantees upon completion, admission to UofL’s School of Medicine. It is a community that intertwines undergraduates with physicians, researchers, and faculty at the School of Medicine.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

This month we are proud to highlight Dr. Mahendra Damarla
with our GEMS Alumni Spotlight. Dr. Damarla is an Assistant Professor of
Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Damarla was a part
of the GEMS Class of 1993 before earning his medical degree at the University
of Louisville School of Medicine. After completing his residency in Internal
Medicine he moved to Baltimore, where he has lived since 2005, to complete his
fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Damarla has long been drawn to medicine since a very
young age. Around the age of 7, he hurt his leg and was checked into Boston
Children’s Hospital. They were able to calm “this wailing, crying kid; they were
able to make it better.” It was in this solidifying moment that he began his
path to medicine. While he knew that medicine was the career he hoped to leave
his mark, the specifics often changed. It is said that all medical students
experience a moment where everything clicks.
For Dr. Damarla this came during a MICU rotation; he discovered that the
“high acuity, pathophysiology and problem solving” atmosphere of the ICU perfectly
combined the “coolest parts of medicine,” and was where he belonged.

Dr. Damarla brings a new perspective to the GEMS Alumni
Spotlight Blog. As a physician-scientist, he spends on average 70 percent of
his time conducting research and the other 30 percent is focused on patient
care. It is this diversity that he labels as the best part of his job. Dr.
Damarla’s lab focus is on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which focuses
essentially on the “why and how blood vessels become leaky in the lungs.” When
asked what advice he gives to students contemplating research in college, he urges,
“You have to be willing to go all in and explore it.” Pre-medical students
today have countless opportunities to explore research in college. Unlike the
time that Dr. Damarla was at UofL, research is now promoted and encouraged. From
summer programs to working in professors’ labs during the semester, the University
of Louisville is focused on providing opportunities for students to dive into
and explore the world of research while broadening his or her interests.

GEMS has ever evolved since Dr. Damarla’s Class of 1993,
however many things have remained consistent. One of the best, and not always
advertised, benefits of the GEMS program is the relationship formed with the
School of Medicine Admissions Staff. Dr. Damarla highlights this support that
truly helps keep scholars “on the straight and narrow. Pam Osborne, Jennifer
Coffey, and Kim Holsclaw really helped to watch over me and shepherd me through
college and the first few years of medical school.” The opportunity to build
these relationships with a staff that truly cares about its scholars is an
amazing advantage. UofL is a school whose focus is its students. GEMS, as Dr.
Damarla states, is the “mechanism to explore your interest.”

Dr. Damarla encourages all students considering medicine and
really any career to be “willing to go all in. You have to be wiling to
completely immerse yourself. You have to be willing to be the dumbest person in
the room, to stay up all night to study or to see patients but above all you
just have to be wiling to jump in.” Whether that is working in a research lab
to staying in the library the night before an exam, medicine is something that
requires a sense of enthusiasm to dive headfirst. We are proud to highlight Dr.
Damarla with our GEMS Alumni Spotlight. We cannot wait to see all of the accomplishments
that he continues to make at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and
wish him luck in any endeavors.

About Me

GEMS Blog Author: Charles Shofner. I am a Senior at the University of Louisville, majoring in Biology and Psychology and belong to the GEMS Class of 2013. On campus, I serve on the Executive Board of Alpha Epsilon Delta - a pre-health society- where I am President as well as Relay for Life where I am Event Chair & President. I am also a member of Phi Delta Epsilon. Medicine has been a life passion; ever since I unwrapped Operation, the board game, as a child, I have known that I wanted to be a physician. If I could give a piece of advice to students considering medicine as a career, I would urge them to shadow many different areas to truly understand what being a physician encompasses. It is not just a job, but a calling.

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Are you eligible?

The G.E.M.S. program is open to Kentucky high school seniors. Those who have a minimum of a 3.75 GPA, and who score at least 31 on the ACT or 1360 on the SAT receive preference in the G.E.M.S. admissions process. The application deadline is December 15th. For more information visit, http://louisville.edu/admissions/aid/gep